Why Alchemy?

In the history of science, alchemy (Arabic: الكيمياء, al-kimia) combined the investigation of nature with an early philosophical and spiritual discipline. Alchemists were the ancient forebears of modern day chemists, metallurgists, physicians and astrologists. A particular fascination was the transmutation of base metals into gold or silver.

It is this desire to turn the ordinary into pure gold that drives us too. At Alchemy, we seek to transform underwhelming “traditional” intranets into powerful portals, delivering real value within an organisation. We call this our “Portal Promise”.

What are Intranet Portals?

The essential difference between a traditional intranet and a modern portal is that a portal recognises the identity, profile and permissions of the user. As such, communications, information and applications can be targeted to users or user groups, based on their profile.

From a technical point of view, this means that the portal can become the bedrock of the entire IT strategy; providing a common authentication framework, common user interface and common platform integration. This can result in savings of up to 25% in the cost of new application development and deployment.

From a business point of view, modern business portals (like SharePoint 2007) also offer an integrated, out-of-the-box content management system, document management and collaboration platform. This enables improved cross-functional working and knowledge sharing, resulting in reduced costs of new product development and project delivery.

The Alchemy Team

At Alchemy, we have assembled a strong team of portal experts; the business team includes experts in intranet design, user experience, knowledge management and collaboration. Our technical team have deployed intranets using all the leading intranet portal technologies. We only use Certified Professionals, so you can be assured of quality.

Collectively, our team have more than 20 years of experience in Intranet Portal design and delivery at leading organisations. Why waste your money on larger consulting firms, who will assemble a motley bunch of whoever is on the bench, then charge you a fortune whilst they learn on the job? We can hit the ground running and get you off to a flying start.

The Intranet Portal Guide

In 1999, Principal Constultant, David Viney wrote "Dig for Victory" (also known as the Intranet Portal Guide). The guide is the most popular and widely read guide to Intranet Project delivery in the world and you can access the ever-popular free extracts from the book from this page (see right). You can (from there) purchase the full copy of the book, which includes tons of material not contained in the free online guide.

To Find Out More

Why not visit the Alchemy eBusiness Consulting website? From there, you can request an Intranet Portal consulting or delivery proposal... or contact us over the phone to find out more.